Cannabis and the United Nations: Last Chance for Relevance?

Once pushing for a Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, nowadays the United States is the main violator of the 1961 treaty.

In April this year, in New York, the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs, UNGASS, is going to reevaluate this convention.

The results will make clear that, the international laws regarding cannabis, the United Nations is way behind despite a world-wide shift forwards.

As we are writing this, the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) is hosting the 2016 Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the annual gathering in Vienna of all United Nations member states to discuss and make decisions on a wide range of issues related to the global drug control system, and the work programme of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).

In the words of ex-Secretary-General, Kofi Annan: “I believe that drugs have destroyed many lives, but wrong government policies have destroyed many more.”

So is change likely to come at the UNGASS 2016 in New York? For an answer, make sure to watch our latest report embedded above!